🇮🇩🇦🇺 Keating lends credibility to controversial SWF
Surabaya takes on WA at home, but everyone won in the long run
Hello friends!
This fortnight has been a fun one. No government visits, but some interesting developments elsewhere.
For a deeper look at Indonesian news and politics, I co-host Reformasi with Kevin O’Rourke. Australia is usually only mentioned when someone is in town, or I say something that doesn’t make sense to American Kevin or our brilliant Indonesian producer, Steven. But if you’re keen to get more Indonesia coverage, I really think it’s a good bet:
Thanks for reading and especially for sharing. This is very much a word-of-mouth operation, so hitting ‘forward’ a couple of times makes a huge difference.
(This headline was updated after it landed in emails, I used the wrong word!)
⚽️ It’s not who wins or loses, it’s how many eyeballs you get on your state
It’s a tough thing to be a huge advocate for non-boring, non-boardroom-based moments of Australia-Indonesia interaction but to also hate sports. Sorry! Both countries are too blokey in public life, no thanks! But I have been so wonderfully charmed by last week’s friendly match between the Western Australian men’s soccer team and Persebaya Surabaya, the East Java juggernaut side, last week in Perth. They’re sister states, which I did not know was a thing on account of being from Canberra and disenfranchised from states rights by the federal government.
Channel Seven reckons 20 million Indonesians watched it — that’s nearly seven Western Australias. WA team captain Aryn Williams, who has played for Persebaya in the past, is happy with the efforts even though they got smashed by Surabaya 2-0: “Persebaya is a great club and we saw the quality of their team. But I thought we matched them. I have a great relationship with their supporters and it was nice to see them again. Hopefully, we can do something like this again,” he said, as per Football West.
🐮🤠 Big milk is a big opportunity for Australia
Cattle, cattle, cattle! ABC Rural reports Greenfields Indonesia, the country’s largest dairy company, has imported 1,100 head of cattle from Victoria. It’s all part of efforts to boost local milk production, in part with demand increasing thanks to President Prabowo Subianto’s lunch programmes.
It’s an interesting story. Come for the evidence of Australian trade with Indonesia, but stay for Greenfields Indonesia’s Dick Slaney. Hearing the words ‘crikey’ and ‘Banyuwangi’ in the same breath is heavenly. He notes that while there’s always talk of Brazil exporting beef and live cattle to Indonesia, settle down. They’re miles away and Australia (and New Zealand) are just getting stronger and stronger.
💸 Not sure about this one, Keating
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has been tapped for an advisory role in Indonesia’s new sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, the Australian Financial Review’s Ronald Mizen reported on Tuesday.
Keating had been asked by President Prabowo Subianto, via Foreign Minister Sugiono, back in March.
Not to pick on Mizen, but this report is emblematic of how low Indonesia-literacy in Australian media is holding back Australians from really seeing the story. Keating will join other announced advisors, including Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra (whose presence is probably deserving of an asterisk in its own right, but this isn’t an Australia-Thailand newsletter), Blackstone’s Helman Sitohang and economist Jeffrey Sachs — not Sacks, as the AFR puts it.
He also notes that former leaders pop up on these types of projects all the time, and that Keating himself has been particularly interested in getting involved in Asia. A recounting of Keating’s history with Indonesia while prime minister is also great, though a one-liner about building a ‘strong relationship’ with Suharto — one of the world’s most corrupt leaders in modern history — may be underplaying it. On the occasion of his death, Keating’s eulogy for Suharto was so over-the-top it would’ve made sycophants in the inner sanctum blush.
Which feels irrelevant, but it’s worth stressing that Keating specifically exemplifies the view of some that maintaining the relationship comes at all costs. This view has gotten us (and the Timorese) in trouble before and is not a sustainable option for Australia, even when it’s pushed as an alternative to pulling back from the US. Which is to say, Keating’s well-earned reputation as the most pro-Asia leader is a complicated one.
His name on the list for Danantara lends it credibility. Many Australians want a deeper engagement with Indonesia, so does Keating, Keating likes Danatara therefore Danatara must be a good vehicle for this.
And that’s the failure of this piece — no interrogation on what the fund actually is. I’m agnostic on sovereign wealth funds. Yeah, sure, do whatever. But Danatara is tricky. As Trissia Wijaya wrote for Indonesia at Melbourne on its launch earlier this year, the fund is not for managing energy industry surpluses, it ‘was established by the consolidation of the vast assets of seven huge Indonesian SOEs – encompassing telecommunication and banking, as well as the oil and gas sector.’ Sounds like Temasek! Well, that’s not without its dramas either.
Danantara holds assets worth USD$900bn, Prabowo says, and is directly under his purview. Investors are wary and the Indonesian people are nervous: ‘Among the main concerns is Danantara’s lack of transparency and accountability. It is unclear whether it will be a new engine for development or a victim of political manipulation and corruption,’ Baginda Muda Bangsa and Reyhan Noor wrote for East Asia Forum in April.
That so much of the budget has been sacrificed for the fund and Prabowo’s other favoured projects has been a serious source of contention all year, including during the Indonesia Gelap (Dark Indonesia) protests.
None of this should be news to Mizen or anyone else in the Australian business press: it’s been widely reported by both Indonesian and foreign financial media all year. Which is why, when Mizen reports the Danantara roadshow is coming to town shortly, I’m nervous. Australian business does its due diligence — I’m not convinced Australian media or lawmakers, former and current, do.
🇺🇸😭 ABC FOI reveals USAID mess snagged up DFAT funds
Those dastardly Americans were withholding $1.5 million given by the Australian government to USAID for two projects in Indonesia, the ABC reported today after an FOI. Part of the funds were handed over for a clean drinking water initiative — a project so helpful and politically dull that it really underscores how stupid this USAID mess is — and only returned to DFAT last month.
The other project, which we don’t know if Indonesia-based, was redacted because of the inclusion of “material in the nature of opinions and recommendations in relation to the department's deliberative processes,” DFAT told the ABC. Aw, come on!
Grace Stanhope from the Lowy Institute's Indo-Pacific Development Centre told the ABC that while the funds itself are really just a drop (get it!) in Australia’s aid budget, getting it back is important: “It doesn't matter how small the amount is, it is still a proportion of Australian taxpayer funds.”
👻 Things are going bump in the night
I hear a spectre is haunting Jakarta. It is not communism, do not say it is communism! A spectral figure is haunting Australia’s gorgeous new-ish embassy complex in Jakarta, allegedly. As my Sumatra-Birmingham bestie puts it: ghosts aren’t real — unless you’re in Indonesia.
Four big, beautiful banyan trees were uprooted from their home in the old grounds of the embassy and transported down Jalan Rasuna Said in 2016. They’re an important show of Australia’s deep diplomatic roots with the country, Australia said. That’s where ghosts live, said Indonesia. Leave the lights on, you’ll be right.
Sangat pintar dan lucu, Erin